Oxford Cup Weekend

"Wow, Pinky, You really owned me tonight. That was one big call you made to bust me. No wonder you went on to win the whole thing." - Simon "Aces" Trumper

Umm, actually he didn't say that, I folded to his bluff and later on he busted me. Oh, sorry, I didn't mean to spoil the ending for you.

Live poker rocks. Internet poker is profitable, but live poker is what it's all about. I had a lot of fun this weekend. I saw friends, I played some good poker and I made a bit of money. One can't complain much about that.

The Oxford Cup is now in it's fifth year and this weekend's event was the largest tournament in the UK to date, with about 360 runners. The main event on Sunday was a £20 rebuy tournament. It's essentially a student event, but it's open - more or less - to any one who wants to play. A number of pros make the effort to attend and it also attracts a large number of those involved in the poker industry, whether they're there to pimp their latest venture or simply to hang out and play some cards.

For a £20 rebuy tournament it generates a pretty handsome prize pool. This year's was a shade below £20,000. £1000 is taken off that for the highest finishing student leaving almost £5,000 for first place.

Saturday served as a warm up day. I arrived in town just in time to see Oxford loose in their varsity heads up matches with Cambridge. That was shortly followed by a $500 freeroll layed on by the University Poker League, who also sponsored and ran the main event. I didn't take the freeroll particularly seriously and was the first person out, which alowed me time to catch up with some non-poker playing friends over lunch.

Enough people had busted from the freeroll by the time I returned from lunch to start a cash game and barring a pizza and beer break with an anonymous medic, a cash game was the order of the day and most of the evening too.

There's nothing better than live cash. Well there are some things that are better, like sex and the first shit after a really heavy night on the beers (but not the second, becasue by then the extra-hot chili sauce that was doused on the previous night's kebab has worked its way through). Anyway, I digress. The game was 25p/50p no limit holdem. We started with a £50 maximum buy-in but that was soon extended and by the evening there was no cap, which enabled the President of the Oxford Poker Society to drop an incredible £1000 (three hundred of which was on a tilt-fuled heads-up match with the editor of Poker Europa). The game had the perfect mix of bad loose players and very good loose players such that you never knew whether you were coming or going, value betting, protecting or bluffing. There really is nothing better than deep-stacked live cash.

Despite repeated promises to myself I negleted to take a note-pad with me, so I can report little more than the fact that I managed to come out with a £150 profit. The one hand I do remember was when I had to lay down Aces, which pained me greatly, but was probably the correct descision: the afore mentioned editor of Poker Europa opened in middle position for £3. A good-and-tighter-than-most-but-still-tricky player from Cambridge flat called on the button and I pumped it up to £15 from the blinds. They both called and we each had about £200 in front of us. The flop was an uncoordinated 358 and I led out for £30. Poker Europa folded and the Tab thought briefly before flat calling. The turn was a 9 and I check-folded when the Tab bet £60. He might well have been flat calling on the flop in order to put a move on the turn - and in a heads up pot I would probably have checked the flop to prevent him from being able to put the pressure on me on the turn - but given that the nine had now completed a possible straight draw as well as another plausable set or two-pair I decided to chicken out and give him the pot. I was pleased when he flashed me a nine as that fitted in with many of the hands that were beating me.

We then moved on to a party that was going on at Lincoln's MCR (graduate common room) President's digs. There was a lot of booze. A few hazy memories include practicing my Turkish on a couple of unsuspecting post-graduates (yes they were Turkish), clearing the dancefloor when a drum'n'bass track came on, singing anti-cambridge songs involving sex with lepers at the President of the Cambrige Poker Society (who incidentally came 5th in last Sunday's $Million garunteed on PokerStars) and ending up at the kebab van.

I was woken at an ungodly hour the following morning for a 10:30am start for the main event, but in the end it was something I was very grateful for because it allowed a surprisingly large amount of play for a one day event with over 350 runners. At very few points was it the low-"M" crapshoot I expected and a big thanks to Joe and UPL for organising such a good tournament.

My starting table was ideal. Everyone was shit. There weren't the crazy number of rebuys I'd hoped for but I could probably expect to collect a lot of what was on the table anyway. We started with T2000 in chips and each £20 rebuy was another T2000. Blinds started at 25-50 and levels were 30 mins long. The rebuys period was three levels and the blinds were fairly gradual. All in all the tournament had a great structure. I was very impressed.

I doubled up early on with AK against AQ and ended the rebuys with just over 4000. I topped up to 6000 for another £20 and although I was below average, the tournament was only going to cost me £40!

I came back from the break eager to take the chips from the muppets on the table and I gradually did just that. My first big decsion came when I picked up AA in early position and made the standard raise. The small blind, who had not been at the table long but seemed to be playing tight, flat called and we took the flop heads up (he had a massive stack of chips). It came something like T82 with uncoordinated suits. The small blind led out for a bit less than the pot and called my raise. This scarred me somewhat and I checked after him on the turn. Both the turn and river were blanks and it didn't take him long to go all-in on the river. I went into the think tank for a good few minutes. I was very concerned about a set, but in the end - getting 2 to 1 - I called. I'm not sure if it was a good call, but in the end I decided to call figuring that he may be looser than I'd previously thought (rocks tend not to build up huge chip stacks early on) and that I'd need to take a few risks to get anywhere. He tabled JT and I doubled up. All the fish at the table were amazed that it took me so long to call!

Gradually the fish got weeded out and were replaced by some pretty good players and before long the table was actually quite tough. I kept adding to my stack particularly when I found myself protecting the worst hand...

The blinds at this point were 250-500. The last remaining fish (loose-passive) limped on the cut-off and I limped on the button with K8s. Both the blinds were good solid players capable of making moves when necessary. The flop was an uncordinated KJ9. Everyone checked to me and I bet 1000 (half the pot). The small blind folded, the big blind raised to 4000 and the fish folded. My first instinct was to fold, but on consideration I didn't see the big blind as the kind of person who would go for a check-raise with a big hand in this situation given that it wasn't particularly likely that anyone would bet behind him. My thinking was that he thought I was buying the pot and so decided to check-raise after he had seen me bet. I therefore flat called. The turn was a blank and the big bling checked. This made me fairly sure I was ahead and I bet what I had left to protact my hand, which was a little more than the pot. I expected him to fold pretty quickly, but instead he agonised for almost five minutes. I knew he was beating me at that point, but I also knew that I'd almost inadvertantly represented a really big hand. I was really enjoying his torture! Eventually he folded and showed J9 for a flopped bottom two pair. His torture didn't end there as he pleaded to know what I had. I said I'd tell him after the tournament, which seemed to make it worse!

Shortly afer the second break they split up our table, which I was pretty grateful about as there wasn't any dead money left and I got moved to a much juicer looking one.

The next big hand I got involved with was when I picked up AJs on the button. Everyone folded to me and I made the standard raise. The big blind who appeared to have been playing quite loose and aggressive re-raised enough to committ us both if I was to call. I thought he could probably be making this play with any two cards given the way he'd played so far and that my riase could easily have been thought of as a steal so I decided to bite the bullet and I stuck all my chips in the middle. There was no way he could fold at this point, but I was surprised to see that his hand was a good as the 99 that he tabled. The flop brought blanks but an Ace on the turn and a Jack on the river brought much relief.

The next big hand was one of the two key hands I played against Simon "Aces" Trumper. He'd just moved to the table and at the moment I played the hand I hadn't clocked who he was. My only knowledge was that he was new to the table and seemed pretty knowledgable. We weren't far off the bubble by this stage; we were down to 47 players and the final three tables got paid. The blinds were 2000-4000 and I had about 65k in chips (average was 40k). The action was folded around to me on the button and I made it 12k with pocket fours. He thought for a bit and flat called for half of his stack.

The flop came KQ9 and he pretty quickly went all in for his last 14k. This really put me to the test and I haven't stopped thinking about it since. As far as I see it now the reasons to call are: the 3-1 pot odds that I'm getting; this "stop n go" move stinks of a bluff; if I call and loose I'm still around average in chips. Reasons to fold are: I'm only beating a bluff and even if he's bluffing he's bound to have overcards which will hit about 30% of the time. If he's got AT or AJ for overcards with the gutshot he'll win about 40% of the time. In the end I folded, but I think that's marginally the wrong descision. Incidentally, he showed me A8.

Despite that little run in I managed to avoid tilt and carried on playing solid poker to cruise into the money and down to the final two tables. At that point we took another break and I came back to find Trumper on my right and the tournament chip leader (Cambridge president who came 5th in the previous week's $1 Million Garunteed on PokerStars) to my right. Perfect!

Time to exact my revenge...

By this stage the blinds had become significant in relationship to stack sizes and a couple of rounds where I hadn't had the opportunity to steal had left me with an 'all-in or fold' type of stack. I probably picked the wrong moment - when UTG limped in as did Trumper - to push with 44. A micro-stacked player called as did UTG and Trumper got out of the way. A limp from UTG with blinds of this size should really have set off more alarm bells than it did, but fortunately he only had AK. The mirco-stack had Q8. Not only did I mangage to avoid all four overcards, I hit a 4 on the turn for good measure. Well, we're all entitled to a bit of good fortune now and then.

This put me back into large stackdom with about 300k, but I lost a 100k of that a few hands later: one of the weaker players open raised and I pushed with AQs. Everyone got out of the way and the weak player insta-called. Whoops, I thought, hoping it was KK rather than AA. Nope, it was niether of those. He tabled 66, but I failed to improve despite turning a flush draw.

My moment of sweet revenge and crowning glory should have come shortly after. Trumper open pushed for 200k on blinds of 10k-20k. I found AK and called figuring that waker aces were in his range of hands as well as pairs. I was delighted when he tabled AT. Time indeed to exact my revenge.

"No ten, no ten, no ten." I pleaded, and the dealer obliged, until the river.

I took it remarkably well. At the time it really only felt like just another cash game suck-out. It was only on the drive home that it really sunk in. If I'd have won that pot I would have been a big chip leader going into the final table where the top five paid out over £1k each and top prize was almost £5k. Instead I left in an insignificant 12th place with only £150 to show for my effort.

I actually had Trumper covered by about 10k so over the course of the tournament I missed two opportunities to bust him, but hey, at least I came out with a story and a quality weekend to boot.

Here's to next year's.